


not quite winter, not quite spring

by ninetwothrees



Series: and not one drama major among us [2]
Category: A Pink (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Families of Choice, Fluff and Angst, Fluff without Plot, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninetwothrees/pseuds/ninetwothrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hayoung loves Eunji but sometimes she wouldn’t mind if Eunji loved her just a little less.</p>
            </blockquote>





	not quite winter, not quite spring

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: allusions to abusive parents, alcohol mentions, ridiculousness, unbeta'd
> 
> from the same 'verse as [_어머나! 어머나!_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5683156) but it can be read as a standalone i think

“What the fuck is this?” Eunji roars from the kitchen and Hayoung nearly falls off the couch, alarm bells sounding off in her head. It's not Eunji’s raised volume that's unusual (“I'm from Busan,” Eunji always says as a way of explanation, never mind that Hayoung has never heard her Busan-raised sunbae Sunyoung go above regular inside voice). It's the _fuck_ that gives it away. Hayoung has enough experience with Eunji’s vocabulary to know that _shit_ is fairly mundane; _fuck_ , on the other hand, only tends to pop up when Eunji has had a few, but now it's eleven in the morning, and despite Eunji’s expertise in alcohol-filled fun, Hayoung would be terribly worried if Eunji started off so early in the day. (The infamous 24/7 Beer Expedition of the Freshman Week Hayoung only heard stories of exempted.)

“Unnie?” she says in a small voice as she hears approaching footsteps and Eunji’s _serious business_ face comes into the view, aimed at her no less, so this doesn't look like Eunji's about to launch into one of her angry monologues Hayoung only happens to be present for.

“No, really, what the fuck is this?” Eunji is now waving something that appears to be a piece of paper in front of her, and Hayoung is genuinely lost on whatever is happening. “Well?”

“It would help if I could see what you're holding?” she dares to say.

Eunji somehow manages to look even less pleased than a second ago, and that level of displeasure was already in record heights. “This came in the mail.” She drops the paper in Hayoung’s lap.

She finally peeks at it. Shit. “Oh that.”

“ _Oh that_ ,” Eunji mimics. “When were you going to tell me you placed first in your entire school?”

Eunji is the tiny one out of the two, as Hayoung likes to remind her, but right now Hayoung feels herself shrinking and sinking further into the couch. She doesn't speak yet and naturally, Eunji isn't done.

“And it says here you were invited as a representative for the National Student Summit, whatever that is, and you passed it up?” Eunji’s eyes scan Hayoung’s pajamas she still hadn't changed from, the half-eaten pack of honey chips next to her, and the paused game of _Crash Team Racing_ on Hayoung’s ancient Playstation 2 she brought from her old house.

Hayoung follows her accusatory train of thoughts and now she has to speak up. “No, unnie, that's not fair. I help out at the coffee shop every afternoon, don't act like I'm just marking this spot with my butt.”

“You're in no position to argue right now,” Eunji says as firmly as before but her eyes soften. She's quiet for a moment and there seems to be a mental battle taking place inside her before she continues, with hesitant lightness, “And you know I like your butt and the terrible foam hearts you make.”

“But?” Now that they're past the shouting stage, Hayoung prompts the righteous speech Eunji needs, not without gaining some leverage, though. She smiles in her best cute dongsaeng impression. "I put hearts on your coffee only, just so you know."

Eunji chuckles and pushes her feet off the couch not-so-gently so she can sit next to her. “I don't appreciate you hiding I'm living with a genius,” (Hayoung rolls her eyes,) “and ignoring amazing opportunities like this… school thing. Why, you dumbass?”

A good ol’ existential crisis, Hayoung would say, except Eunji has little patience with existential crises and probably even less with phrases such as _existential crisis_ , so she just shrugs. Sensing a chance, she suggests, “Can we postpone?”

Eunji sighs, mumbling curses under her breath, and Hayoung can just picture her sitting around with the local grandmas back in Busan Eunji told her about. But the next moment she transforms back into the 22-year-old she is, grabbing a nearby pillow and hiding her face in it. “Why do I sound like such a mom?”

“Well, not like my mom,” Hayoung can't help but say, and Eunji stays behind her pillow cover for longer than seems natural, Hayoung suspecting it's to avoid having to look at her. She's learned there are certain things people don't stomach easily. Eunji makes the effort not to show it, after many a trial-and-error, but Hayoung can tell how it's almost as if her _misunderstandings with her parents_ (as Eunji would call it before she learned to shut up, no offense) go against Eunji’s very being, the core of what she believes in. Hayoung doesn't hold it against her, though, not when Eunji nearly forced her to find a home on her couch and let their separate Hayoung’s and Eunji’s lives become Hayoung and Eunji’s.

 

The next day is Sunday, which means school doesn’t start until tomorrow and Hayoung can enjoy another lazy morning before she heads out to the coffee shop later that day. It's just her and the leftover pizza awaiting her in the fringe since Eunji’s already left to run errands that in 90% likelihood could have been postponed. (Postponement is Hayoung’s favorite concept. She's not exactly proud of it but she refuses to be ashamed either.) “Crazy, crazy world,” she mumbles to herself.

Her absent-minded smile falters when she reaches the appliance and her eyes automatically fall on Eunji’s weekly calendar. There, under _make Namjoo pay for last week’s coffee_ , _return books to the library_ , and _buy Minki’s birthday present_ is the fatal line, a fresh scribble of _have the conversation with maknae about her academic excellence :)_.

Pepperoni tastes significantly worse with the feeling of impending doom.

 

If Eunji is a mom, she’s admittedly a cool mom. Hayoung, Chorong, and Namjoo along with a bunch of customers stop and stare from their respective positions at the coffee shop as a motorbike arrives outside and Eunji hops down, clad in a leather jacket matching the imposing visage of her ear piercings, and waves a goodbye to the driver Hayoung recognizes as Lee Junghwan, one of Eunji’s friends of the Busan batch Eunji has managed to collect around the campus.

“Holla,” Eunji enters brightly and they all snap out of their mesmerized states, pretending they never happened in the first place. Namjoo ignores the greeting while Chorong grumbles, but Eunji is looking at Hayoung, who freezes in place. The moment she was bracing herself doesn’t come, though; Eunji only pats her backside on her route to the back office. “Doing good?”

Hayoung realizes she has until the end of the shift.

 

Not if she has any say in it.

She doesn’t but she can try, in the least childish manner she can think of, which is still damn childish.

After she swaps the door sign from _open_ to _closed_ , one of the few set obligations she has as an unofficial employee, she notes Eunji is nowhere in sight. Not wasting any time, she walks straight into the kitchen, turns the light off, and ducks behind the worktop Naeun is sitting on ("Hi unnie.") where she won’t be visible from the entrance.

“This kitchen used to be drama-free. Why did it become everyone's hiding place?”

Of course, this is when Naeun decides to speak. Hayoung wants to say as much, or maybe _you’re one to talk_ , but there’s no time for bickering so she only pulls a whelping Naeun down with her.

“What-”

“I’m hiding from unnie,” Hayoung states the obvious. “And you won’t lie for me. So just stay down here until the air is clear. Please?” she adds with attempted aegyo.

“Ew,” Naeun says but doesn’t move away.

Just in time, too, because the door swings open a few seconds later and Hayoung holds her breath, until a couple of muffled voices cut through the silence. Definitely not Eunji. Hayoung peeks over the counter and makes out Chorong and Bomi in the darkness, whispering to each other. She’s suspicious of their intentions in the kitchen after hours but she won’t pry, not in this critical moment. “Get over here,” she hisses and the unnies jump up at her reveal, and Hayoung _really_ wants to pry now, noticing the embarrassed faces they pull, and perhaps they’re the reason they oblige easily (and spare Hayoung having to argue they owe her from the days of their mating rituals they all fell victim to. She can save it for another emergency.)

“What are we doing?” Bomi says hastily once crouching next her. It’s getting crowded in there, Naeun’s hair tickling Hayoung’s ear and Chorong’s knees poking into her back.

“Hiding from unnie,” Hayoung explains. “Now hush.”

Bomi listens, which is uncommon for her now that she stopped trying to impress Chorong into dating her. Good, because the door opens once more and everyone tenses.

“What’s going on?” another un-Eunji-like voice says. “I can see the top of your head, Oh Hayoung.”

Hayoung pinches the bridge of her nose. She’s about to urge Namjoo to join them but to her shock Naeun starts getting up. “No!” She holds her down. “Unnie, in here!”

A puzzled Namjoo does as instructed, far too slowly for Hayoung’s taste. “Were you followed?” Hayoung asks.

“No?” Namjoo sounds mildly disturbed. “I’m just here to pick up Naeun unnie?”

But now that she retrieved the information she needed, Hayoung clasps her hand over Namjoo’s mouth, and makes sure to lower her head with more efficiency.

Several minutes pass without much disturbance and then their resolve crumbles one by one, with the leader of the operation in charge. Hayoung turns to Namjoo. “You two know each other?”

“Cramp!” Chorong yelps, dropping to the floor and taking Namjoo and Bomi down with her.

“Hair!” Naeun cries out, apparently having it yanked down along with the girl pile.

Hayoung stands up, resting her elbows against the worktop after her legs nearly give up under her. “Where is Eunji unnie?”

Four pairs of incredulous eyes turn to her. “Are you serious?” Bomi says.

“Wasn’t the whole purpose of this avoiding her?” Namjoo continues.

“Yeah, but…” Hayoung fidgets. With the anticipation off, all she's left with is a feeling of emptiness. “Shouldn’t she be doing something by now?”

“I don’t understand this kid,” even Chorong, the once nice and timid unnie, eggs on. “Let’s go.”

So they do, wordlessly forming a tail so they don’t bump into anything, Hayoung putting her hand on Bomi’s shoulder in front of her and someone behind her following the suit on Hayoung's shoulder.

The main area is deserted, a perfect image of a coffee shop after closing. They make their way to the front door and Hayoung can hear Chorong at the head of their human snake reaching for the handle and then her soft voice going, “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Hayoung rejoices whenever Park Chorong and the F word come together but since _fucks_ have only signaled disasters this weekend, she suspects joy isn't an emotion she can currently afford.

Then the bomb drops. “It’s locked.”

“You don’t have the key?” Hayoung says for good measure of being annoying, and with feeble hope that maybe Chorong is just too shell-shocked to remember the key is in fact in her possession.

Chorong only seems to register the former intention as she gives Hayoung a level look. “I would think you would have the key.”

“Unnie has the key,” Naeun says, exasperated.

“Well, um,” Hayoung zones in on Namjoo, the second youngest, so that she won't seem too bossy with what she's about to say. “Call her.”

“No way, she took all my cash today, I’m not wasting my credit on your mess. You call her.”

Hayoung bites her lip. “She’ll get worried something happened.”

The echoes of “but something _did_ happen” are unnecessary at this point and she ends up dialing.

Eunji picks up after two rings. _“Yeah, Hayoung?”_ As she predicted, Hayoung spies thinly veiled concern even in those three syllables.

“Unnie, where are you?”

“ _On my way home, why?”_

Hayoung explains the situation as vaguely as possible, wincing at Eunji’s (fine...) well-deserved ranting in her direction, and then all there’s left to do is wait some more.

 

“Will you finally tell me what you were doing there? It looked like everyone’s gone home when I was closing.”

Her plan worked, then. Yay? Hayoung drops on the couch, utterly exhausted. “A surprise party?”

“My birthday’s in August,” Eunji says dryly, not buying it. Hayoung wasn’t expecting her to.

“Can’t there be a surprise party without a birthday?” she still argues halfheartedly but the last bits of remaining energy leave her soon after and she groans. “Can this be one of the stories I spill over soju, future tense?”

“Let’s postpone, you mean?” Eunji smirks.

“Exactly,” Hayoung says warily.

Eunji’s smirk lingers for a second and then she yawns. “I’m beat.”

If Hayoung didn’t know better, she’d let her guard down at the words, but this is Jung Eunji and Hayoung saw the calendar and the dreaded topic is far from over, but maybe that’s okay, she decides.

“Wanna sleep in my bed tonight?”

“Sure, unnie.”

So they squeeze in Eunji’s single bed, Eunji insisting on being the big spoon despite how impractical the arrangement is given their size differences. They lie in silence for a while, sleepiness taking over even as they’re both preparing for the conversation still to be had.

“First place in school is pretty badass,” Eunji mumbles behind her eventually. “I’m jealous. I was always… two-hundred-something? I’m visiting home next week, I’ll check. Or you could check, if you want.”

Hayoung blinks. Eunji's always mentioned in passing she’d like Hayoung to visit her hometown sometime, but that sometime never took form more concrete than that. “Sounds good.” She’s careful with her wording when she continues, not wanting to dismiss Eunji’s point of view. “Though when you think about it… isn’t it all just academic elitism? Like my friend Sooyoung, she’s…” Hayoung smiles, “two-hundred-something, but I don’t think it makes me better than her.”

She can’t see Eunji’s face but she imagines she’s frowning. “Am I allowed to be proud of you?”

That’s not quite Hayoung’s point but she gives in, humming in agreement.

“I need you with me at uni next year so you can help my failing ass." Eunji’s embrace tightens around her. "I also need you to give all those extra school activities a chance, hmm? I'll come and cheer you on.”

“I guess.” Hayoung wonders if this was Eunji’s plan all along, get her dopey and cuddled in and as a result less difficult to deal with than she would normally be.

There’s another pause in which they’re dozing off further, or at least Hayoung was, because when Eunji speaks next, her voice sounds wary in approach yet clear in tone. “Can I… do you want to call your parents? I bet they’d be proud, too.”

Discomfort and impatience wash over Hayoung but in lesser force than she’s learned to expect of them. There’s mostly Eunji’s warmth against her and a feeling as close to safety as she’s ever felt. “No.” She fights against the approaching sleep so she can assure Eunji she’s not mad, not really. “What did you get Minki?” she says meekly.

There’s a thud against her upper back where Eunji most likely just dropped her forehead. “Nothing, I suck, I need your help.”

“What?” Hayoung lets out a surprised laugh.

“I’m so bad at picking gifts. I don't trust myself even when it's for my favorite boy in the whole world.” Eunji reigns in the desperation in her voice and pokes into Hayoung’s side. “Beside, you’re closer to him in age and mentality.”

The admission doesn’t seem to fit with Eunji’s personality at all, but Hayoung thinks over the past years and her gifts from Eunji, consisting of a set of hair ties (when Hayoung’s hair was so short she was able to style it into apple hair at most), the university t-shirt (despite Hayoung not attending it yet), and a retro poster depicting a strawberry (which would have been nice, except Hayoung hates strawberries so it felt like a mockery; to be fair, no one remembers her hatred for strawberries because it’s supposedly “weird,” and she taped the poster in her school locker the next day.) Hayoung has never connected the dots but it’s obvious now: Jung Eunji is awful at gift giving.

“Oh, unnie,” she says, strangely glad she doesn’t know Eunji as perfectly as she thought. With some effort she manages to turns around in the little space available and finds Eunji with closed eyes and her mouth gaping. Hayoung pats her head and joins her in easy sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> is strawberries the fruit hayoung said she hates lol <3


End file.
